This year’s meeting of regional broadcasting organisations and transmitting equipment manufacturers (MBT) took place in the Hungarian capital,Budapest.
Hosted by the national transmission company Antenna Hungária (AH), it was an event that Broadband TV News was privileged to present.
The conference was split into several sessions and consisted of a large number of presentations by a wide spectrum of industry players. The scene was set by keynotes from AH and the Hungarian regulator NMHH.
Key discussion points in the first session, entitled Terrestrial Challenges, were 5G and how it will impact on DVB services. It also included a presentation on DAB+ and how it is safeguarding radio’s future in Europe.
There then followed two sessions entitled Towers are Forever. Highlights included an outline of terrestrial 4K and how it is developing in a number of countries including the UK, Russia, Japan and Korea; addressable advertising; and DRM, where we learnt that a service is just about to be introduced in Budapest.
Perhaps the most interesting session was on OTT and how it is now “over the threshold”. It included key presentations from Nagra (OTT piracy), Harmonic, AWS Elemental, Cryptoguard and MediaKind and provided a broad overview of market developments. Of particular note were stats related to OTT piracy, cord cutting and linear OTT.
The conference concluded with a session on IoT, with one of the presentations, from AH, discussing how it may present a great business opportunity for broadcasting companies.
MBT is undoubtedly an important industry event and will next year be held in Serbia, with the host being RTS.
